-1Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. Death Note belongs to Ohba and Obata. You'd know if I owned it. Matsuda'd be the one in leather.

Author's note: Bunch of ficlets based off the prompts for the Ficlet 50 on live journal. I'm not doing the challenge, just using the prompts because I'm too lazy to think of my own. They'll be mostly Matsuda-centric because the guy doesn't get enough love and idk I just like Matsuda. Reviews adored. Spoilers for everything, pretty much.

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And Life Goes On

Prompt: 20. Ghost

Everything the new L did had the potential to go wrong a hundred different ways, and always went exactly as planned. But on nights like the one he'd just had, Matsuda was sure that after surviving one of the most notorious cases in history, he was going to end up shot in the back of the head by one of the gangsters Near sent them up against.

Yawning, he unlocked the door of his apartment, sighing when he realised he'd left the lights on before heading out. Stupid Matsuda, he thought to himself. Looks like nothing's changed. But, he conceded, if you looked at it properly, everything had.

Checking his watch, he determined that 3am was in no way too late to eat, and pulled out an arbitrary microwave meal from the freezer compartment of his fridge. He poked the buttons tentatively, hoping that the machine would actually work right on the first try, then cursed and poked the buttons again, a little more viciously. It beeped in reluctant acceptance, and Matsuda leant against the counter to wait for his dinner (breakfast?) to be ready.

God, it had to have been Yellow Box they'd gone to tonight.

One of the members of the syndicate they were taking down on Near's orders had been Light's age, to look at him. Light's height. His hair was longer, and black, but that didn't stop Matsuda seeing the same contorted, screaming face he'd seen a year ago when the shots started firing.

He'd almost missed a crucial shot. The kid had fumbled pulling out his gun, and Matsuda had had the time to level his gun, the time to prepare the shot that would send the kid's gun flying across the floor, but he hadn't been able to. The shots had flown past Mogi's head. Mogi had almost died, because he couldn't bring himself to shoot Light again.

Ide was right. It was about time he pulled himself together.

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A/N again lol I can't shut up. Sorry if my characterisation is way way out, I'm hoping it'll get better as I practice writing the character/s a bit more. This is following on from the last chapter, with the drug bust Near tells Aizawa about. I promise I won't make them all so angsty. I just wanted the first one to be after it all ends. Idk. Just tell me if it sucked D:

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